Stolen Kiss
by EarthRiddle
Summary: A short vignette that concentrates on Ace and Julius. Ace admires Julius's hard work and rewards him with a simple kiss.


So, yeah, I deleted all my old M-fics. Sorry, guys. Really am. Does Julius and Ace boylove make up for it? It doesn't go too far and is abrupt because of...new fanfic policies. :(

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"Heyyyyy, Julius~" The knight's voice rang out in Julius's room, rising above the constant ticking sound of the clocks Julius kept scattered around on tables, waiting to be fixed. "Got a delivery."

He stepped into the room, coat swaying with his long-legged swagger. There was arrogance to his movements his smile didn't show. He gazed over at the long-haired man, letting a bloody bag of clocks drop from his hand and hit the table with a rattle.

"They're a mess." Julius glared over the rim of his glasses, picking through the bag and pulling out bits of clockwork.

"Well, that's what happens when you whack someone with a sword. That's okay! You can make them better. The clocks. The people are pretty dead." Ace's smile never dropped.

"This is disastrous." Julius began to make piles, categorizing the pieces so they would be easier to put together later. "You should be more careful about waving that thing around. I don't care what you do to the people themselves…but try to avoid the clocks."

Ace went over, glancing over Julius's shoulder as the mortician looked steadily more and more annoyed. "What's that spring there for?"

"It's necessary to keep the clock functioning. Everyone has one or two. Not all clocks are exactly the same...not a big deal."

Ace stared with childlike wonder Julius was unused to seeing on his face. Ace was many things—cold and frightening or laid-back as he feigned kindness—but this interest in discovery that Julius saw was curious. The mortician couldn't help but be intrigued.

The knight picked up one of the springs, examining it, running a gloved finger across the spiral. "Funny. This is all we are in the end, huh?"

"Don't think about it too much," Julius said, very seriously. It was how he handled it. Day in and day out, the mortician handled the clocks of the dead. It was where his ironic title came from. He took no pleasure in it, but he had a certain meticulousness about his craft.

_Ace is too simple, _Julius thought.

But then Julius's gaze brushed over the man and saw how Ace examined the clock pieces, his eyes narrowed in thought.

_No, no. He's _deceptively_ simple._

There was real thought going on in that knight's head, Julius realized, and he found himself mesmerized by the knight's intense gaze. His lips were slightly parted, and Julius swore he could hear a light hum deep in the man's throat.

Ace turned that smoldering, thoughtful gaze on the clockmaker, and Julius felt his heart speed up.

"You're pretty smart, Julius. Fixing all these clocks, knowing how they work. I kinda envy you. I mean, getting the clocks is fun...but the things you do." He grinned. "Your hands must be really skilled."

"Nonsense. It's just work. Anyone can do it. I'm just the unlucky one who does."

"I don't think so." Ace stepped forward, allowing his cape to fall to the floor and revealing his red coat. "I think your hands are very skilled." He took one of Julius's soft hands, massaging the palm with his fingers. The leather of his gloves, rough from so much use, slid across Julius's skin. When he released his hand, Julius felt a pang in his heart.

Did he...like Ace being so close? Confusion rose in his heart.

"I want to feel you..." Ace whispered. He removed his own glove very slowly, finger by finger, and dropped it to the ground. Then he grasped Julius's hand, massaging each finger, and as the clockmaker was distracted by that, the knight leaned forward and snatched a kiss from the man's lips.

The moment their lips met made Julius's head swirl with thoughts. Ace's lips were rough and slightly chapped. Of course they were. Ace didn't take care of himself.

Ace smirked. "I was just curious~ And I found out the answer! Your lips are as soft as a girl's." His thumb ran down the clockmaker's bottom lip, toying with it.

Julius smacked his hand away. "Don't play with me."

"Oh, but, Julius, I'm not playing. I'm very serious about this. I really wanted to see how soft your lips are...but now I know!" The knight whistled, turning his back to Julius and heading for the door. "See ya!"

Julius held his hand to his burning lips, never before having felt something cause so much feeling rise in him. Here he was confused and lost, and Ace was treating it as nothing but a game. He _knew _Julius never got any, and that he was a lonely soul trapped in the Clock Tower.

The kiss practically electrified his skin, sent so many emotions scurrying in his brain that he wasn't sure where to start actually feeling, leaving him in a state of numbness. Julius turned his shaking hands back to his clock.

Tomorrow, things would return back to the status quo, and he would never mention this kiss again.

But he would never forget it.

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FF is enforcing it's TOS now. So sad. I'll probably start posting over at adultfanfiction too. I'm thinking that the next fanfic will be bloody twins and Alice in honor of the new fanfic.


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